


Playing Fair

by Alethia



Series: Starting to Finish [4]
Category: CSI: Miami
Genre: Banter, F/M, Fluff, Teddy Bears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-02-23
Updated: 2004-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-11 13:55:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1173868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alethia/pseuds/Alethia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I notice you’ve conveniently forgotten to ask if I <i>want</i> to go to the fair,” Calleigh said pointedly, raising a blond eyebrow.</p><p>“Yeah, it’s much easier to skip that step and move on,” Eric said conspiratorially. “C’mon. I’ll win you a teddy bear.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playing Fair

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on LJ [here](http://alethialia.livejournal.com/47006.html).

“You know, you’ve gotten into the worst habit of showing up on my doorstep.”

Eric looked down at his feet and back up at Calleigh. “You don’t have a doorstep.”

She rolled her eyes and cocked a hand on her hip. “It’s shocking Speed doesn’t laugh at your jokes. You’re so funny.” Tone letting him know she meant anything but.

“Speed’s laughing on the inside. He just won’t admit it.”

“You just keep telling yourself that. What’s up?” she asked, smiling now, leaning against the open door.

“I was thinking—”

“And that always ends productively.”

He silenced her with a glare. For a southern belle she really was quite insulting sometimes. “I was thinking we haven’t done anything fun recently. We should go to the fair.”

She blinked. “Wow. That’s a bit unexpected. And you couldn’t call with this invitation?” She sounded like she was formulating a way to let him down gently—okay, maybe she was more of a southerner than he gave her credit for—and that didn’t work so well for Eric.

“We should take one car. Much less of a hassle.” And her politeness could be used against her. It let him come up with devious ways to get her to go. Not that he ha done of those devious ways. But something would come to him.

Sometime.

“Oh, so you’ve got this all planned out, huh?” Amused, now, and that was always a clue with Calleigh. Maybe if he made it a pride thing…

“Yep. Let’s go.”

“I notice you’ve conveniently forgotten to ask if I _want_ to go,” she said pointedly, raising a blond eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’s much easier to skip that step and move on,” he said conspiratorially. “C’mon. I’ll win you a teddy bear.” And there it was. Grinning, knowing that would get to her.

Narrowed eyes were usually a warning, but she’d been insulting him for five minutes. He was impervious. “I am perfectly capable of winning my own teddy bear.”

“Such a shame chivalry’s dead. And I thought you southerners were the last bastion.”

She rolled her eyes. “I am a modern woman,” she said haughtily, making Eric laugh again. “In fact, I think I’m going to win you a teddy bear.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that,” he replied with a wink.

“Yes we will,” she said smugly, grabbing her purse and her keys.

And that worked out—very well actually. He was so good at playing this woman. Honestly. There should be awards.

Such a shame the world would never know the extent of his skills.

“I’m driving,” she announced, daring him to contradict her. Hell, she already knew she lost this round. Eric was more than willing to let her think she was getting something back.

He held out his hands, nodded once, solicitously. “Like I’m going to argue with a beautiful woman.”

***

The fair was packed and there were things to do as far as the eye could see. 

So, of course Calleigh goes for the guns.

“You know, that’s kind of scary. I mean, I know you can shoot the wings off a butterfly and all, but this is kind of obsessive.”

Calleigh raised a hand to her chest, putting on her most earnest look. “I would never hurt a poor, defenseless butterfly. Clowns, on the other hand, are fair game.”

And with that she handed the guy her tickets and picked up a rifle. She looked over at the prizes and pointed to a big, white stuffed teddy bear. “What do I have to hit to get that one?”

“You get five shots You gotta hit four of them.”

Calleigh looked thoughtful. 

“Worried?” Eric asked with a smirk.

“Nah. I’m just wondering what I’m going to do with the fifth shot,” she replied with a smirk, hoisting up the rifle and hitting four of the moving clowns without even pausing.

“So arrogant,” he commented softening it with a grin.

She looked at him knowingly. “Confident. And it’s what you like about me.” Well, yes.

“You got one hell of a shot, ma’am,” the kid said, interrupting them and clearly impressed.

“Yeah, it’s not a good idea to get her angry,” Eric replied with an earnest look that got a glare out of Calleigh.

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Can I have my teddy bear, please?” Asked in her most solicitous southern-belle voice. The kind that made men fall all over themselves to protect her. Hell, even Eric would admit it still got to him. Though that display clearly showed she really didn’t need it. 

The kid got one down and handed it over.

Calleigh immediately handed it to Eric. He looked at the white, furry thing in his arms back to her with raised eyebrows.

“I told you I’d win you a teddy bear.” She smiled, saccharine and satisfied, and sauntered away.

***

“I say we go race motor cars. Or maybe we could do the strength test,” she said, thinking aloud and eating popcorn in that trance-like state that made Eric certain there was something in popcorn that lulled people into a feeding frenzy without them ever knowing it.

It was so possible.

“Or we could always go on the Giant Ferris Wheel and make out,” Eric wise-cracked, giving Calleigh his most charming smile.

“Ha! You wish, scuba boy.”

“Scuba boy? I will have you know I am all man, baby.”

She grinned and walked past him. “Oh, yeah, you’re a manly man,” she said, mocking.

He laughed and followed her to the milk bottle toss she had apparently decided on. “You gonna prove it?” she asked, tossing a ball in the air and catching it easily, a maddening smile on her face.

“Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be, is it?” Eric asked, grinning and stretching out his arms.

“Yes, indeed. I think I’m going to win you another teddy bear.” She turned all that charm on the attendant—who immediately reddened and looked away. Eric couldn’t help the twinge of jealousy when she did that, but pushed it away. 

Now was not the time.

Eric laughed out loud, hoping it didn’t sound forced, and handed over his tickets, shaking his head. “We’ll see.”

***

Eric’s arms were getting tired. And he considered himself in pretty good shape, so that was saying something.

Calleigh had loaded him down with all the stuff they’d won, making a snide comment about chivalry as she forced him to carry everything.

It figured that would come back and bite him in the ass.

She stopped at the outskirts of the fair and looked around. Eric took the moment to drop all the stuffed things and rest. She looked over at him and laughed, walking back.

“All hail, king of the stuffed animal court,” she said with a grin, taking in Eric surrounded by brightly colored fluffy things and enjoying herself immensely.

“And you said I wasn’t funny.”

“Nah, I said Speed doesn’t think you’re funny.” Was she flirting with him? 

Even if she wasn’t he wasn’t one to miss an opportunity.

He chuckled again, lower this time, stepping closer to her and running a fingertip down her cheek. “Yes, you did,” he said roughly, pushing a tendril of hair out of her eyes.

And he knew he was showing too much, that with the earlier comment and this she was going to put two and two together, if she didn’t already know. But he couldn’t seem to find the energy to care.

“Eric…” she said, glancing away.

He moved closer, still touching. ”Hmm?”

“We’re in public,” she said, looking back up at him seriously.

“So? No one’s watching.” His hand was slowly traveling across her jaw and she closed her eyes at the sensation.

“You can’t ignore it forever. Ignore me,” he said lowly. She glanced back at him sharply, eyes hard, surprise evident. Apparently she hadn’t expected him to push it. 

Maybe not perfect at reading him, then. That was a relief.

She softened minutely at whatever she saw in him, and amusement crept back in. She leaned forward enticingly, invading his personal space now. 

No way. There was no way Calleigh was going to kiss him at the fair. She was just—

“I can try.” And with a quirk of her eyebrows she was gone, a chasm separating them.

Oh, that hurt.

“Come on. I’ll let you buy me ice cream.” Playful again, doing a _really_ good job at ignoring what he’d just said. 

Calleigh always was good at compartmentalization.

***

Ice cream firmly in hand and he didn’t even know what flavor he’d gotten. Two cones, that’s all he knew, and Calleigh was determinedly in the ‘not talking about it’ mode because she hadn’t shut up since.

Not that he didn’t like her babbling; he did. It kind of reminded him of when she was on cocaine—funny, approachable, a little arrogant, but spacey enough to make you realize something wasn’t quite right.

Like now. Something wasn’t quite right, though this time the circumstances were a bit more serious.

Not that unknowingly getting high wasn’t serious, but still. Closer to home, then.

And Calleigh was still _talking_ , totally without any support from him, and he should probably let it go, but he was kind of freaking out and from the rapid clip of her words, so was she. And you’d think food would, like, slow her down, but no, Eric wasn’t that lucky. 

They probably had lessons on this when she was younger: How to Talk and Eat Your Way Out of Horribly Embarrassing Situations. 

Yeah, sometimes it paid to be from the south.

Not that Eric had any idea what Calleigh was even going on about—freaking out was taking up quite a bit of his concentration—but the annoying thing was that even if he weren’t kicking himself for yet another unimaginable fuck-up, he’d still be distracted by the fact that Calleigh was busy _licking an ice cream cone_.

He should’ve insisted on cotton candy. This was just cruel. 

“And I said you can’t do that, but he wouldn’t listen and—oh. Oh!” she squealed, trying to balance the precariously tilting, melting ice cream—and this is why you were supposed to turn the cone, an utterly unhelpful portion of his mind informed him—and Calleigh righted everything with some judicious use of her tongue and _unfair_! She couldn’t do that to him.

But then she was thrusting her cone into his hand for some unknown reason that probably made sense to the female mind, saying more things guaranteed _not_ to get his mind out of the gutter, using words like “sticky” and “messy” and all sorts of adjectives Eric could easily apply to another situation entirely.

So it was a shock to watch her _lick herself_ in an attempt to stop the travels of the runaway melted ice cream and no. She couldn’t do that to anyone—much less him—in public, after she’d just blown him off entirely.

He’d dropped the stuffed animal parade—and those stupid things were going to be _dirty_ when he got them home, that annoying part of his brain piped in again—and had gotten a hand on her chin before he even had time to think about what he was doing. By that time it was pretty much too late, so he figured he should probably just go with his instincts and get yelled at later.

Kissing her with something like desperation, only he hoped she couldn’t tell, because she already read him with alarming accuracy and he really didn’t want her to know how much this meant to him.

If she didn’t already.

Kissing her softly, like it was the only chance he was going to get—which, yeah, pretty much—and smelling the sweetness of the ice cream mixed in with the subtle hint of her perfume. Surprising to think he recognized it and maybe he was further gone than he’d thought.

Couldn’t spend the time thinking about that, however, because she as making a surprised sound against his lips, but wasn’t doing anything _close_ to pulling away. And he knew acceptance when he felt it and the arm that made its way around the back of his neck was way more than he’d been hoping for when he started all this. 

Surprise making him a bit giddy with it and his hand was numb, but he ignored it because Calleigh was kissing him _back_.

Still kissing and nibbling at her lips, coaxing more out of her, hand in her hair, breathing her in. Trying to control the shaking because that would definitely be considered unmanly and it might even be worth it because she was warm and willing and in his arms, and not protesting the hand moving down her back, pulling her closer and the kiss that turned deep, shocking in its intensity and wholly unexpected.

Surprised a dim part of his mind to realize that she was meeting him fully, no hesitation, no rejection, and maybe she’d thought about this more than she’d let on because Eric was kissing her in the middle of the fair, and people could see them, and Calleigh wasn’t even _paying attention_.

Broke away to pant against her, still not believing this was actually happening, heat curling low in him, letting him know that, yes, this was pretty damn real.

Satisfying on a primal, completely irrational level to see swollen lips and slightly glazed eyes, feel her breathing hard against him. 

He leaned in for another kiss, soft, like the first. Gentle. Soothing the jitters he knew she must be feeling. He was feeling. 

In what alternate universe did something like this happen to him?

Calleigh smiled, embarrassed, and looked around quickly, remembering they were in a very public place.

“Nobody’s watching,” he murmured, though he didn’t know, really. But it wasn’t that much of a spectacle—young couple kissing at the fair—and if it made Calleigh feel better, Eric was all for platitudes.

Calleigh breathed out a laugh, like she was still processing and didn’t know what to do with it all.

Join the club.

“You broke the ice cream cones.” Hello, non sequiter, but when he glanced at his hand he realized he had, cracked them into a pulverized mess in his hand and now he and Calleigh were both sticky and messy.

He could think of a few other ways he’d like to be sticky with her, but knowing Calleigh, that would have to wait.

“Yeah,” he said, turning on the sheepish smile that worked so well on her. “Sorry.”

Calleigh grinned back at him, then turned serious. “Rain check, then.” Could it be considered flirting after they’d been mauling each other for the past few minutes?

“Absolutely.” Slow grin, heat behind it, and she blushed and looked away. Cute to see her turn pink and he absently wondered how far down it went. 

Made a mental note to find out when he got the chance.

“We should get going. I have paper towels in my car. And you need to get home and arrange your stuffed animal court,” she said playfully, smile twitching at her lips.

“Such a comedian,” he said dryly, wiping off his hand as best he could using the cheap napkins they’d given him and gathering up the scattered prizes. “But I wouldn’t laugh, I think a fair number of these are shacking up in your house tonight.”

She laughed. “Well then it’s probably a good thing I don’t have a house, huh?” 

He glared at her and she just laughed again, helping him gather them together and walking off towards her car.

She turned back briefly when he didn’t immediately follow, lights hitting her hair and reflecting, golden and distracting. “C’mon Eric, you’re going to miss your bed-time.”

“You going to tuck me in?” he asked, and okay, that was probably going too far.

“In your dreams, scuba boy. Let’s go. I’m sticky.”

“I can think of worse things to be.”

***

Fin. Feedback is adored.


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